RWBY: ICRS wings
by Checkmage
Summary: A new story set in the world of remnant, it takes place alongside the main RWBY story and will feature several characters and events from it, but it will mostly be an original plot line focusing on original characters. I'm writing this more for fun than anything else so I hope other people enjoy it too. (A grammar update is on the way by the way).
1. Prologue ICRS

"I guess we'll just train again today?" Saphia lay upside down on her bed talking to her brother Prico in a chair across the room.

Saphia was a girl of eighteen, she was one hundred and sixty-two centimeters (5 feet, 10 inches) tall and downright refuses to even weigh herself let alone give her age out to anyone else. She had blue hair that was currently fallen all the way down to the ground beneath her so the purple tips from when she last dyed it spread their way around creating waves across the ground. The freckles dotting her cheeks rested on an extremely pale face with soft features. She wasn't innocent looking though and was certainly athletic, there was more than a little definition to her muscles. Her eyes were a bit different, they were kept locked behind a glass prison so she could see but they were sharp and focused and always looked like she was squinting just a tad. They were eyes that pierced right through your soul and didn't stop to look around.

Saphia's brother Prico had surprisingly little in common with his sister, as far as physical appearance goes anyway. He had inherited their mother's dark skin as well as her comfortable green eyes that whispered promises of safety to any who met his gaze. He was one hundred and fifty-seven centimeters (5 feet, 5 inches) and kept himself at a fairly healthy weight that he refuses to check as well. His muscles aren't quite as defined as his sisters, but they are prevalent, and his entire body is very well toned. There were a few things that he didn't have that would have made him a whole person. His ear and one of his eyes were covered up with patches, underneath each one was nothing but a hole though. There were also cuts spiraling around his body and scars that would never fully disappear.

"Sounds like a good time, I always love teaching my little sis why she isn't a huntress yet," he grins at her with that stupid grin he gets whenever he beats her, he hasn't won yet though."

Saphia hugs her pillow and pouts, "I'm not a huntress because mom and dad won't let me go to an academy and because I'm only eighteen, not an old man like you."

"Ah yes, the ancient age of twenty-five, your genius shines through again." His grin doesn't diminish in the slightest from her prodding.

"GUH! Fine, I'm going to kick your ass though, so I hope you're ready to add some more bruises to that face of yours." Saphia jumped off the bed and walked out the door to head to their training room. "I didn't even want to train, you just won't decide anything for yourself and there's nothing to do in this stupid house."

"I have trouble deciding, with a sister who can only leave the building with our parents there are just so many fun options of things to do." Prico laughed at her and kept up his grin as he walked towards the door but stopped when he noticed she wasn't moving.

"You don't have to do stuff just for me you know? You could just go off and do hunter stuff or whatever else you do when you're not babysitting. It's not my fault I can't leave the house." Saphia's shoulders shake a bit as she grips the door frame.

Prico's grin instantly disappears as he places his hand on her shoulder, "hey sis I didn't mean that, it's mom and dad's stupid rule I know that. But I like spending time with you, ok?" He moves in front of her and goes to wipe away the tears he's expecting but sees her meet him with a grin instead.

"You're a fucking dork, come on I saw dad we gotta go greet him." Saphia practically laughs out her words.

Saphia walks past him and down the stairs, but Prico stares off in shock for a minute before following.

"He shouldn't be here yet, fucking bitch!" Prico growls before pushing passed a very surprised Saphia.

She stands on the stairs for a minute trying to process what just happened before she hears yelling, yep dad is definitely home.

"Go back to your room, you don't need to be here for this!" That'd be her father's gruff shouting.

"I'm not going anywhere until you get the hell out, I've told you that I'm not letting you take her!" Definitely her brother, but his voice is full of anger which is unusual.

"You go back to your room right this instant or we will lock you in the basement, this isn't time for your foolish games you're going to get someone killed again." Her mom, she was always the best at shouting it hurt Saphia's ears a lot.

There is silence for a moment before Prico's voice is heard in his regular calm tones, "that's a good idea, I will go down to the basement feel free to lock me in. And I sincerely hope that he's gone by the time I come out or I'll make sure he never comes back." The basement door slams and Saphia hears her mother cursing as she finishes her decent.

"I thought teenage angst was supposed to end when you weren't a teenager anymore." Sapia yawns while walking up to her parents, "guess he's still a kid with daddy issues; speaking of, hi dad."

Saphia's father was a hunter as well, but a bit different from her brother. While Prico took on the actual missions of killing Grimm ravaging towns and doing dangerous stuff, her father generally stuck to easier assignments. Most of Prico's money was taken and given to support their failure of a father who, unsurprisingly, didn't make enough money taking nothing but simple missions.

Saphia's father walked up to the girl and placed his hand on top of her head.

"Hey there, it's been a while since I've had a little time to come back and see you all it looks like everyone is doing well though." Saphia's father kept his voice calm and mellow which was unusual but not unwanted.

Saphia shrugged before answering, "yeah, you know, business as usual."

The two of them stared at each other in silence for a few moments before her father stepped back and fumbled with a bag on the table, taking out a donut he handed one each to Saphia and her mother. He had a huge smile on his face as he shoved it into his mouth and let the jelly spill down onto his chin.

Saphia managed to retain her neutral expression but she was seething in her thoughts _"yeah, thanks dad this makes up for you never being here a fucking jelly filled that I don't even like."_ She slowly chews through the donut pretending to enjoy it, _"I'm going to gag either because of this crappy stale shit or from the smell, gods, he must never shower."_

"Anyways Saphia, I came to talk to you about something very important." Her father mutters spewing jelly, "you submitted an application to Beacon academy, you know how we feel about that."

Saphia freezes mid bite and her face drains of the little color it has, jelly falls down her face and onto her shirt but she's in too much shock to catch it.

"_Damn it!"_ She thinks to herself, _"I thought Prico could keep his stupid mouth shut, I didn't get in anyway, didn't even get a freaking letter back from them. So it doesn't even matter, why do you even care?"_

Her mother spoke up and rested her hand on her daughter's shoulder "your father and I have decided to let you go, now you didn't get in to Beacon but I'm sure we can set something up for you at Haven academy, how does that sound?"

Saphia was in shock, she dropped the rest of her donut on the floor as she was overcome by an intense series of emotions that she was not ready to process. She stood their completely still staring off into the distance over her mother's shoulder as her breathing slowly accelerated.

"Hun… Sa… Saphia" Her mother can barely choke out her daughters name, "are you all right? Do we need to call the doctor?"

"Just give her a minute." Prico's voice can be heard still angry through the door, "she basically needs to reboot."

Saphia's mother doesn't listen and starts to shake her daughter's shoulder, "come on now, we don't have time for this, it's what you wanted yes so just tell us so we can get preparations underway."

The door to the basement falls to the ground it's hinges broken off, Prico stands in the doorway holding a rather large sword. He walks up to his mother and violently shoves her away from his sister making sure not to touch her.

Prico growls at his parents, standing between them and Saphia "Can you just do something right and decent for once? Do you have to always be assholes?"

Their mother's face contorts in rage for a split second before softening, "come now Prico, I just want what's best for us all, I don't know much about… whatever is happening so you can't blame me for making an honest mistake." She puts on her best innocent smile under Prico's glare.

"Anyways," Prico tosses the words over his shoulder as he walks towards the main entrance, "I'm leavin, y'all take care, love you Saphia!"

"Wait!" Their father quickly jumps up and runs after him, "where are you going, this isn't a good time you need to stay inside right now we're going to bring your sister to the academy but you can check on her later!"

"_They're bringing me to Haven now?"_ Saphia thinks silently again, _"why? And why can't Prico come, I want my brother there when I get accepted, he's the only one that'd actually be proud of me…"_

Saphia looks up and sees Prico in the doorway holding his sword up to their father's throat with murder written on his face. He slowly moves his hand down to the trigger in the blade's hilt and does not let the sword waver for a second. Soon their father backs away slowly raising his hands in the air in surrender with tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Please Prico!" His father begs, "you're the good one, why won't you just let us get rid of this… thing and wash our hands of it, it can all be over today!"

Prico lowers his sword and steps outside before he shouts back, "I do love you Saphia, best sister I could have asked for make me proud at Beacon alright!?"

He gently closes the door behind him, and the room falls silent. Nobody moves for several minutes except for Saphia's father who continues sobbing and banging his fist on the ground. Saphia is finally able to adjust to her emotions and processes what is going on, as soon as she does she bolts for the door and throws it open, there's nobody there. She desperately looks around, searching the bushes and asking their neighbor sitting on his porch if he saw Prico coming through, nothing. No sign he was there at all, let alone a sign that he's gone or where he went. She slowly plods back inside and solemnly pulls the door shut behind her before falling to the floor and hugging her knees.

"He's gone, my son is gone." Saphia's father sits shocked muttering to himself, "it doesn't matter where we look, he's gone… and we're stuck with you!" He spits the last words at Saphia on the ground.

Saphia's mother rises in anger and picks her up by the neck, "no we're not" she calmly mutters, "this freak is going to leave, and we are never going to see it ever again."

Saphia makes no effort to resist and just hangs as her eyes glaze over. She can vaguely hear some words in the background, something about them sending her away to Haven or wherever would take her.

She contemplates her situation silently, "that suits me fine, I never want to see either of you again either, I may as well just die honestly. Not like I had anything to live for before I was a family disappointment."

Saphia opens her eyes and manages to mumble out a few words grinning, "I may as well make Prico proud, that's a good way to spend my life."

"You little shit, you're not deciding anything we'll decide what street corner to throw you away on! Understand!?" Saphia's mother screams in her face spitting saliva on her daughter.

Saphia's face is overtaken by the grin now though and she grips the hand that's holding her up fiercly, putting pressure on her mother's wrist until she lets go. She notices her father's eyes flash with anger as he charges towards her and takes a swing with his fist. He's fat and slow and his lumbering physique is easy to read, she steps to the side and brings her knee up to slam into his stomach. The two parents step away from their daughter nursing their wounds and glaring in white hot rage.

Saphia was done with pleasing her parents and was ready to scream how she felt, "You don't get a say in my life, Ms. Rowan next door has been a better dad then you have! Maybe she is my real parent, she certainly fucks mom often enough, more often then you at least since you're never here!"

Saphia didn't care if she came across as some angsty teen, her brother had vanished, and it was somehow connected to her worthless father. "and you! You literally don't go anywhere, you sit around all day and yell at us when you have an entire world to explore, there's a life outside your fucking bedroom you know! And more importantly there were kids to take care of, were because you missed your fucking chance!.

Saphia wasn't the only furious one though, her father's eyes were bulging with rage. "Don't you dare, you have no idea what you're even talking about! Just get your shit and get out of here right this minute, here!"

He shoved a letter in her hand before giving her a shove towards the stairs and turning towards her mother. The two began to yell at each other about something but Saphia was too shocked to process any information. She ran up the stairs and hid under the covers of her bed before even taking a glance at the letter. The tears streaming down her cheeks made it hard to see but she eventually managed to tear the envelope in half and read a few of the words at the top of the white sheet.

_Dear Saphia Elmas_

_We have received your application to Beacon academy, and while it is somewhat unconventional that you have yet to attend any schools for huntresses, we have given it much thought. Because of your exceptional scores on the tests we administered as well as the recommendation from both Prico Elmas as well as Holly Rowan, both alumnus of Beacon we have decided to move forward with your enrollment at Beacon Academy this fall. Attached you will find instructions for finalizing your status as a student and join us for our upcoming semester._

There was more written below that, legal nonsense Saphia was sure but reading just that first part had brought even more tears to her eyes making sight impossible and reading even more so.

"_Ms. Rowan's an alumnus of Beacon? And Prico too, I thought he went to Haven, I guess mom lying isn't the newest thing though. Wait… does this mean I get to go to Beacon? Why did dad have this? What the fuck is going on, gods damn it Prico you're supposed to help me I can't…"_ Sphia's breathing began to accelerate rapidly alongside her thoughts. "No way, I can't go to Beacon I can't even get through the day, I can't stand this what is going on!?" And then it stopped.

Saphia looked over at the clock to see that twenty minutes had passed, that wasn't too bad. It sounded like her parents were done yelling too, hopefully dad had already left and wasn't coming back, his precious son was gone after all. Saphia slowly crawled out of bed and stretched before gathering up the envelope to read the rest of it. This wasn't an uncommon occurrence for Saphia. If she became too overloaded with stress, which happened often, her brain would start to accelerate rapidly throwing out thoughts and then it would stop. She could still think and move during this time, but it was hazy and she constantly heard a sound akin to tv static playing through her mind, it was a complete nightmare.

"Ok." The hazel-eyed girl finally whispered to herself, "I'm going to Beacon academy, thank you Prico, thank you Ms. Rowan."

She clutched the letter against her chest and started to cry again. These tears didn't sting like the ones before, they lit up her face and made her smile shine. Saphia got to work immediately she'd need her things at Beacon academy, clothes and her medicine at the very least. Her arms worked autonomously they knew exactly what to do and what to grab. Saphia had packed these same items many times before these shirts, those books, that soap she knew her list by heart. Every time she begged her parents to take her on a trip, she had chosen items just like this hoping beyond hope that they'd accept her efforts as proof she deserved to go. It was childish and simple, but nothing bought Saphia more joy than placing her things inside the singular suitcase she owned and imagining bringing them out in exotic locations. Getting to read her favorite book at Haven, wearing her best dress in Atlas, even just putting on her sunglasses at the beach. It was all of her fantasy's and more coming true right now, she just had to ignore what she had lost in achieving this dream.

Saphia's humming could certainly be heard everywhere in Vale, but not a single person could see the tears that had returned to burn her cheeks. Ever so slowly and delicately object after object was carefully arranged in it's space and prepared for her journey. It was slow work, not because she needed the time but because she wanted to savor every second of the intense feelings circling her mind. Just a few things were left now though, it was almost time for the perfect dream to end.

Saphia put on her combat outfit after this first stage of packing, they were the only clothes that had been made by a tailor for her. The tailor her brother hired hadn't been too interested in making clothes for a shut in so he had let his quality slip. The vest fit her perfectly sliding across her skin and pressing against her softly as she did the buttons, it felt heavenly. The vest was primarily blue but wasn't symmetrical or matching at all there were sections with almost random splashes of brown. The skirt had more serious issues; Saphia loved it though. it still fit snuggly and was just lopsided, so one side reached down farther than the other. Her mother had made plenty of comments about her "failure of a skirt" but she had always laughed at it and loved the extra touch of silly oddness. Although she did make sure to pull up her black cargo pants underneath it, no way was she going outside without pants. Oh, right she'd have to go outside in order to be outside, that wasn't exactly a thought she was happy to have intruding on her happiness. She shook the anxiety off her bluest blue jacket and threw it over herself leaving the hood down. She was warm, and cozy, and ready to face the world or maybe get more sleep.

Taking a look at herself in the mirror Saphia was shocked to realize that she was pleased with the girl staring back at her. The outfit was far from perfect, and she could still notice her bodies imperfections small blemishes and guh her shoulders were so wide and uneven. Definitely not someone most would describe as beautiful or even cute.

"I look great… I really do what a cutie, I'd definitely date me." Saphia laughed to herself and smiled at the person in the mirror, a girl so unlike how she always had been.

The girl in blue wasn't allowed more than a few moments of freedom though, as thoughts of her brother rushed to consume the light that had filled her mind.

"Things aren't getting better, I'm not going on a trip I'm getting kicked out." Saphia raised her hood above her head to hid herself, "I need to leave because there's nobody else left who wants me. I can't pretend there'll be someone at Beacon to care about me either."

She slowly stood up and took a deep breath before unlocking her door and watching it slowly creak open one loud alert of her presence at a time. Time for the steps, one by one down the stairs until she reached the second floor and then down another set to see her parents whispering in the kitchen. Her father probably glared at her they were probably both crying; she didn't have the energy to lift her eyes and check. One more flight one stair and then the next and another one after that, just a little longer girl.

Their basement was the gym Prico had built. This was the room where she had first heard about huntresses and grimm, where she had discovered why her brother sometimes came home covered in red and holes. This was where she had been when her brother had come home missing an eye, and then an ear, and then a friend, but at least he had still come home. The storage locker was the left of the stairwell, a large cage with red chains preventing any from entering save the ones her brother trusted. She couldn't remember the exact combination but that didn't matter, if she started at fourteen her hands remembered which movements would open the lock. Three left to fourty, two right to ninety-one, four left to sixty-nine, of course that would be the last number what a nerd.

First off, she needed her eyes, they were on the first shelf on the right. The room had ten shelves, each one was numbered which had been a waste of paper. Saphia and her brother had always thrown items onto the shelves wherever they wanted. Having a sorting system or remembering where things were was pointless; after all they had all the time in the world. Her eyes were the one exception, they were always taken out first and put back last, so they found their home in the same location every time. A small pair of glasses with yellow rims were right there in their box as always, her eyes.

Saphia took off her glasses and replaced them with her eyes, they weren't very pretty so mom didn't want her wearing them too often. They had hooks in the back to wrap around her ears no matter how much physical movement she did, stopping her from moving was probably her mother's true intent. Sit still and look pretty, nothing about this outfit suggested a girl like that, nothing about Saphia suggested a girl like that.

The girl who would not be told to stay took another box with a handle down from the tenth shelf, provisions. Prico had taught her about what foods kept and they had packed this together in case they ever needed extra rations that didn't involve their parent's money.

Finally, it was her weapon, the last thing to grab. Really, they were all Prico's she hadn't a single lien to help him purchase anything, but he always shared if she took the time to learn. She had used swords, and axes, and a variety of guns. Saphia even had her own spear that her brother had bought specially for her and yes, it was also a gun. The other weapons were all simple things that civilians would use to defend themselves, but that spear was a real huntress weapon and she adored it. Unfortunately, she couldn't take that spear it wasn't hers. In order to buy such a weapon Prico had begged their father for money, he never knew Saphia had even used weapons let alone been given one. She wouldn't be allowed to take it with her, and she hadn't earned it anyway so instead she grabbed the small tube of metal waiting on the second shelf and left the room, locking herself out of it forever.

This was the one thing her parents couldn't miss they wouldn't even notice it being gone since they'd assume Prico took it with him. It was his shield, the one he used on so many missions and which had saved his life on so many occasions. The shield could change forms like into the tube of metal it currently was, but Saphia always knew it when she saw it. It was gold when Prico first bought it but now it had worn away to a much duller yellow, but the red scorpion painted on the front was as vibrant as ever. Saphia loved that design, it looked so pretty, so Prico had spent money he didn't have on maintaining it always.

It was her shield now, Samael Light belong to Saphia and nobody else. Nobdoy else would have noticed her brother didn't have it, in the whirlwind of his departure nobody would have taken the time to see his left wrist was devoid of a dull yellow and a red scorpion. She always noticed, she had been taught to analyze people fast, and after all the time she had spent with her brother, seeing the shield missing had been a screaming flare in her mind. Her brother left her this shield there was no other reason for him to not take it, this was her last salvation he would ever offer her.

Essentials, food, eyes, books, and a weapon, that would do it for sure it had to be enough. The girl who couldn't stop snuck up the stairs hiding the food and shield behind her back and quickly stuffing them in her suitcase before returning to her parents with her things in tow.

Her father looked her up and down and opened his mouth to make a complaint but was stopped by his daughter silently holding out a piece of paper with the seal of Beacon academy.

He sighed and put his hand on her head, "I'm sorry you had to turn out like this, we'll be doing everything we can to get your brother back so go and enjoy your life kiddo."

It was almost kind, almost reassuring, almost parenting. The walk to the airship port was most certainly not parenting though. Random strangers greeted the two of them on their way, several of them asked if Saphia was one of her father's girls and if I knew there were others. He laughed at each one and clapped her on the back before making some disgusting remark.

"_Treating your own daughter like she's another one of your whores, I certainly didn't expect anything more."_ She kept her thoughts to herself though, these people including her father meant nothing to her anymore and she wouldn't give them the satisfaction of believing she cared.

When they finally reached the airship base Saphia's father began a goodbye, but she walked away before he could get more than half a word out. He watched her go and waited until the airship lifted off. He regretted not being there for her, he regretted not being a father, but he was hopeful things would be better for her now.

"Hey, you sendin someone off to Beacon? Who you waitin for bud?" It was one of his old friends they had gone to Haven together, mostly for the drink money and time. "I'm sendin my son off, he's finally ready to go make his da' proud, yours already went to Haven though right?"

"Yeah… I'm," the man who used to be Saphia's father took a moment to consider his answer before speaking "I'm just watchin, no way any blood of mine is good enough for Beacon."

The other man laughed, then both men laughed and walked off to spend a night on the town. The man who had walked Saphia to the airship base looked over his shoulder until he could no longer see the ship, Saphia didn't even glance back once. The man cried in his house with his wife that night, Saphia wept alone in an airship bathroom. They would both move on eventually, but they'd never forget or forgive where they came from.


	2. Chapter 1 First Flight

Saphia sat on the airship next to a boy she didn't know who was saying something about cake to the other person on his other side. Saphia focused on her breathing and ignored most of the people running around the ship and talking.

"_Alright this isn't so bad,"_ Saphia thought to herself, _"flying could be worse, my ears popped and that hurt… but it's calm and this seat is comfy, I think I can do this. Well… I can handle this flight, I guess Beacon is a lot more than just this but… I'll deal with that when it comes no worries, it'll be great."_

She lurched forward in her seat slightly, the ship had hit the ground and so did she. This was their third stop and each landing was still the one part of the flight she couldn't stand. There would have to be at least one more landing at Beacon itself and she was not looking forward to getting tossed around. Saphia grumbled while climbing back into her seat, the two boys next to her were giggling.

Saphia couldn't stand their giggling but she kept her thoughts quiet, _"yeah I get it I'm clumsy and should do a better job hanging on you don't need to be jerks."_

Several people crowded onto the airship all at once and quickly began conversing with the other occupants. Most of the people were around Saphia's age and carrying weapons or at least boxes that likely transformed into weapons. The array of colors was almost blinding, there were greens and blues and yellows of all different shades mixed with a dozen other colors, each person was a bright shine in the rainbow light show that hovered around Saphia.

"Um excuse me, do you know what aura is? Can someone explain this to me?" A boy walked around asking questions of whatever light of a person he found himself next to.

The boy was tall and muscular but compared to all the people in the ship that wasn't anything out of the ordinary. He looked quite average compared to the other passengers, some of them even made him appear short by comparison but he couldn't have been less than one hundred and eighty centimeters (five feet, 11 inches). The behemoths in this ship were just all models of athleticism, Saphia herself felt very underdeveloped. The boy walked among them with confidence though and let his orange duster trail behind him. Actually he was covered in orange, his shorts and t-shirt were one solid color and even his tan skin had a slight orange hue to it.

"How can he stand to look like, a duster and so much orange it makes my eyes bleed?" The boy sitting next to Saphia laughed while pointing at the one in orange before moving on to critique other outfits.

"_This guy is so rude."_ Saphia's thoughts certainly loathed the boy next to her, _"he's not wrong but saying it out loud is fucked up."_

"Hey there, how much do you know about aura glasses girl?" The boy had walked up to Saphia and was giving her a tooth-filled smile while asking about aura.

The girl in blue pulled her legs up on her seat and hugged them close to her chest hoping he'd just go away and leave her alone. He didn't leave though, for some reason he had chosen Saphia to be his conversation partner after everyone else ignored him.

"I mean, I know how it works kind of, I can use it to not die and stuff but what actually is it? Can I get more somehow? And what's this semblance stuff that I've heard about, it sounds really badass I could use some super powers to up my game!" His voice was surprisingly soothing, even with the non-stop barrage of words Saphia felt calm just listening to him.

"It's um…" Saphia couldn't form the words to fully explain it, she had studied aura plenty, but something told her giving this boy a text book worth of theory wouldn't really provide what he was looking for.

"It's just you, your aura is made of you so it's you making you more powerful by charging you up with your own power, you know?" That voice was a lot less calming, it blasted Saphia's ears with an unbearable number of decibels.

One of the lighter lights in the room walked up to them, a fairly short person, by the ship's standards, with rainbow hair wearing a white jumpsuit with splotches of color like someone had spilled paint down their front. The rainbow-haired person matched the boy's smile as if their explanation had perfectly answered his questions. Saphia buried her head in her knees but surprisingly the boy nodded along as if he understood perfectly.

The two of them discussed aura and it's application for several minutes laughing most of the time, Saphia tried her best to tune out the nonsensical explanations that were going on in front of her.

"So, it doesn't actually make you more powerful it just lets you use your power juice in ways other than just punching things and running?" The boy contemplated.

"Yep, exactly right!" The other one responded enthusiastically, "it takes your juice and lets you use it in lots of fun ways like making barriers and shit." What did any of this even mean?

The boy held out his hand which glowed a dull yellow as a projection of the same hand appeared layered over it, the copy was slightly bigger than the original but kept the same proportions.

"Oh! Is that this, my friend taught me about making this and it always looked super cool like my very own super power." The boy's voice had changed all of a sudden, instead of the calming tones he had used earlier he was more or less shouting every single word it was grating on Saphia's ears.

The mess of color whistled before responding, "nah dude, that's your semblance the barriers subtler than that, super badass though you should definitely use that loads. My names Iris by the way, I'll be your resident theydy and themtleman." Iris burst out in laughter at her own joke and the boy soon followed.

"It's great to meet you, I'm Copper and I have no idea what a theydy or themtleman is." In spit of his words the smile didn't drop from Copper's face for a moment.

Iris threw their arm over Copper's shoulder and guided him towards another corner of the ship, time for someone to teach you that the world has a lot more than just birds and bees my friend!" Iris snorted while walking away and turned her head around to toss a wink in Saphia's direction.

"Th-thank you, Iris." Saphia muttered; the mess of color had helped take away the source of her anxiety, at least they were considerate.

While the two had been considerate of Saphia, they were much less so of the other residents of the airship. In particular their loud voices roused a girl who had been sleeping on the seat across from Saphia since before the girl in blue entered the ship. Saphia had spent most of her trip watching the other girl sleep, it was almost graceful as she sat perfectly still with her eyes shut. If it wasn't for her eyes being shut and her complete lack of reaction to anything going on around her Saphia wouldn't have been able to tell she was asleep; well there was also a small bit of drool that dripped down her chin as an indicator.

The girl was a black dress with purple lining delicately sewn in, she also donned a purple ari cap that had slipped off her head earlier in the flight and now rested on her lap. The girl's dark skin fit with her dress perfectly, there was no way it wasn't made specifically for her. Everything about the girl completely enraptured Saphia but she wasn't entirely sure why, she figured it was most likely her overpowering feelings of gay. Everything about her, her brown eyes, her kind and gentle smile, the elegant way she held herself everything about her was divine.

The girl snapped awake and looked around worried for the source of sound but very softly smiled when she noticed Copper and Iris having fun with one another. She offered the two new friends the seats next to her and happily joined in their conversation but with a much more mellow cadence. The three of them continued to discuss aura and it seemed as if the girl in black had also managed to master speaking whatever strange way of speaking Iris used to communicate. Saphia watched the three talking like old friends and considered joining them, but there were no open seats so that was completely out of the question obviously.

"Oh, oh, oh! You two should see what I can do it's super awesome I've killed hundreds of Grimm with this shit!" Iris' tone hadn't changed in the slightest and could still be hear throughout the entire ship as they stood up and threw their hands in the air.

In standing up so quickly though they had accidently kicked the girl sitting next to them who promptly fell to the floor with a yelp. The girl was in all white, even her skin was almost as pale as Saphia's. She looked to be wearing a dress of some kind, or maybe not… no it's a combat skirt definitely a combat skirt. The white girl shot to her feet and growled at Iris who just laughed and gave half-hearted apologies. She snapped her head away from Iris and walked away in a huff without offering a single word of forgiveness, she found a new seat. Iris rubbed the back of her head and stuck her tongue out laughing, hardly looking apologetic.

"You should be careful Iris, rich girls have a tendency to seek revenge for even minor inconveniences and with all the dust her family has, retribution would be quite painful." Iris calmly chided Iris while gesturing with her hand for the mess of color to sit down.

Copper interjected suddenly, "They'll be ok! I have plenty of dust too so we could give her a run for her money. Um… darn it I really wanted to make a money joke, but I can't think of anything good." Copper sulked into his seat for the first time showing an emotion beyond joviality.

The girl in black gently patted his back and breathed out calming words, "if you think of something later, let me know? I'm sure it'll be hilarious. For now though, you said you had dust what kind is it, may I see?"

Copper slowly lifted his head and his smile with it before pulling his leg up and pointing at his boot, "it's gravity dust, I keep it in here so I can fly all over the place. Well… I'm supposed to but I never really got that good at using it but hey I'm going to Beacon to learn, right?"

"GRAVITY!" Iris jumped to land down next to him and examine his boot before squealing in glee, "that sounds amazing, you could fight a Nevermore in it's own territory with that stuff!"

"I've always kind of wanted to try out a bunch of different types of dust but I don't think gravity suits me very well." Copper contemplates his words and suddenly takes off his boot offering it to Iris, "do you want it? I bet you'd be really awesome with it!"

Iris squealed and hugged the boot really happily. The girl in black held her hand out towards Iris who pulled the boot away very protectively.

The girl giggled before explaining, "if you give it to me I can take the dust out for you, I don't think we should take away Copper's boot plus it doesn't appear to be your size."

Iris looked dumbstruck and held the boot up to their foot to examine it and see it was in fact too small for them. They happily handed the boot to the girl and bounced in their seat.

"Thanks Rhyme!" They exclaimed eagerly, "where should I put it? In my boot, or maybe I could make my fists have gravity powers!?"

"Well I think that depends on your weapon, what kind do you have?" The girl apparently named Rhyme absentmindedly asked while examining the boot and looking for a way to remove the dust cartridge. "I have a friend who can modify your weapon to use dust if you don't have somewhere for it already?"

"Really!" Iris exclaimed, "can your friend give me robot fists to put dust in!?"

Rhyme giggled while fidgeting with a latch on the boot, "no hun, I'm afraid that's outside his skillset… do you not have a weapon?"

Iris plopped her head on her hand and pouted, "I kind of have one, but it's just a dumb whip without any special features or anything, so lame. I wanted something cool but I kind of broke the last weapon I made so I'm stuck with this dumb thing." They sighed and puffed out their cheeks sadly.

Rhyme sucked her teeth and pulled a purple cartridge from the boot handing it back to Copper, "Well I guess I can look into that too, he should be able to remake whatever weapon you wanted and add dust functionality to it." She handed the cartridge to a stunned Iris.

Iris' mouth hung open for a minute before they managed to get out a single word, "Oh my god Rhyme you're the best! Holy shit if you ever need anything ask me, I'll do whatever weird shit you're into if you make me a badass weapon!"

Rhyme giggled again and patted Iris' head before responding, "that's very sweet but just make sure you do your best with it and get rid of tons of Grimm, having another high-quality hunter in the world is good for me."

Saphia hadn't managed to take her eyes off them this entire time, there wasn't anything else going and these three were surprisingly entertaining. Especially Rhyme, hearing her name for the first time even if it was out of Iris' mouth had been heavenly, and every time she laughed Saphia's heart skipped a beat. It skipped another beat when the ship lurched forward and she found herself face-first on the ground again.

Another stop, this ship must be going all over Remnant it was so awful. Saphia tried to gently lift herself up but suddenly felt a pressure on her back forcing her against the ground.

"Oh! Crap sorry, I didn't see you there." An apology from some guy, he'd stepped on her.

A hand reached down and yanked her up by her arm before shoving her onto her butt back in her seat. Saphia had no idea what was going on, why was she being thrown around so much this wasn't fair. She took a moment to shake her head before looking up and seeing a large boy with brown hair looking down at her grinning. She still wasn't sure what happened but looking through the window behind him she finally saw it, they hadn't landed at all the ship was still moving just as it had been.

The brunette leaned next to her ear and practically spit his words at her, "now, you're going to stay on this ship and not go near my school you fucking freak." He stepped away and a worried look spread across his face, "I hope everything is ok, sorry again."

The boy waved her goodbye and walked away with a hidden smile spread across his face. Saphia couldn't believe this was happening, she'd gotten plenty of treatment like that from her parents, but it was hard to believe other people would do that in public. She tried to look back towards Rhyme but couldn't see her anymore, there was a hazy mass where she used to be.

"_Fuck, I'm crying."_ Saphia's mind screamed, _"everything just has to go wrong always, I'm such a fucking idiot I can't do this I just need to leave, I can't be here anymore."_

Saphia immediately bolted to her feet and pulled her suitcase to the bathroom in the back of the ship. Everything was just blurry, there were waves of color intruding on her mind as she saw the miles of people between her and the bathroom. It was the longest and most painful stretch of her life. Every single one of them could have been laughing at her or more likely not even caring that she existed she couldn't see well enough to tell.

She finally reached the bathroom door and shakily raised her hand to touch the handle, she could barely get her fingers around it. She felt a pressure on her back around, just like before, she closed her eyes and braced herself for the feeling of someone's boot on her back once again. Suddenly the door clicked open and the pressure guided her inside where she sat down on the sink table.

There was so much color and impenetrable blur, but she slowly felt it being cleared away as a thumb gently brushed over her eyes to clear away her tears. It was still hard to see but slowly several colors came into view as the face of Iris was revealed through her tears.

"Hey there, you feeling ok cutie?" Iris kept their voice quiet and had a warm smile on their face. "We saw what happened, my friend's giving that jerk a piece of his mind don't worry."

Saphia shook a little bit as Iris talked, having someone so close was terrifying and she still hadn't managed to process what was happening. There was a boy, and she had been on the floor, and there was a boot on her back and… and she couldn't stop crying.

Iris' expression grew worried as tears formed on Saphia's face again, they glanced around desperately searching for some way to help. They tried to place their hand on top of Saphia's to comfort her but that just seemed to make the girl cry even harder. Iris had seen people overcome by stress like this before and they were never very good at helping them. Iris stood there nervously fidgeting until the door clicked open once again and they sighed in relief.

Iris leaned in front of Saphia's face and carefully pronounced each word for the girl, "my friend is here now, I know I'm not the best to talk to about this stuff, but could you give her a chance? She's really sweet I promise, and pretty hot too so you might want to wipe away those tears so you can see… uh, that probably wasn't the right thing to say sorry." Iris laughed nervously and rubbed away Saphia's tears again.

Standing in front of Saphia was Rhyme, she had a calm smile on her face that made Saphia feel like things would be ok. Then they were very much were not ok as Saphia's heart beat faster and her face grew beet red upon seeing Rhyme.

The girl in black delicately approached Saphia and held out her hand. Saphia's blush grew even redder as she reached out and took Rhyme's hand in hers. It was soft and cool to the touch, but there was a distinct roughness to it as well.

"You've had practice with weapons, haven't you? Your hand feels like you've done lots of fighting?" Saphia spouted out a single word at a time being very careful of how she formed her sentences. "I mean! No that's stupid, of course you've had practice you're going to Beacon sorry, I shouldn't have said anything! Just forget it thank you, but you can go back to your seat now sorry." Saphia's words were spilling out of her mouth in an endless flood now."

Rhyme frowned a little and rubbed the back of Saphia's hand with her thumb, "it's going to be ok hun, I'm here for you and I want to be, ok?"

Saphia could feel tears coming back to her face but managed to stop them and nod, her eyes were focused on Rhyme's and she couldn't bring herself to look away.

"That's a sweet tongue by the way, what'd you do to it?" Iris' voice rang out and destroyed the little bit of peace left in Saphia's mind.

Saphia's tongue fumbled over itself, "It's… it's… it's just my Faunus trait, I'm all wrong and broken so it's… I'm sorry."

"Hey, shhhh that's ok Iris was just saying they liked it you're not broken hun." Rhyme's tone was experienced, had she done this before? "A green tongue is a really interesting Faunus trait I've never seen it before, it looks really cute on you though."

That completely broke Saphia, her face was completely crimson now and she could barely move let alone say a word. Even her eyes wouldn't move, there was nothing she could possibly process right now anyway. The one thing she could focus on were the deep brown eyes right in front of her, she had been completely lost in her mind which was completely lost in Rhyme's beautiful eyes.

Iris started fidgeting again unsure how to react, while Rhyme stayed still and continued to gently rub the back of Saphia's palm returning her gaze. Rhyme knew better than to do anything until Saphia was ready, she'd give the girl some time to process all the emotions spiraling through her head.

When Saphia's blush finally started to drain and intelligence returned to her eyes her shoulders relaxed.

Upon noticing the change Rhyme hoped it was ok to converse a little more, "what's your name honey? I'm Rhyme and this is Iris, we're going to be first year students at Beacon academy."

"It's… Saphia." the girl in blue was slowly regaining her wits and her proper speech, "I'm also on my way to Beacon, for my first year. I'm going to be a huntress."

"That's really amazing, huntresses have really dangerous jobs though are you ready to handle that?" Rhyme was careful to keep her voice constant and calming.

Saphia's eye twitched at this as she growled out, "I can do it, I've been training my whole life and I'm going to help people!"

Iris laughed and leaned against the door satisfied while Rhyme's smile grew wider. Rhyme moved her arms forward towards Saphia to motion for a hug, waiting for the other girl to make her decision. Saphia seemed surprised but giggled and hugged her crush.

"Thank you, I'm really sorry that I'm such a mess sometimes." Saphia had managed to recover her voice and speak fully once more, "I feel a lot better now though, you two are really sweet."

Iris winked at Saphia and their usual energy returned to their voice, "Helping pretty girls is part of the job of being me, think nothing of it Phia… Saph… eh just Saphia a nickname doesn't really suit you." Their talk was now filled with laughter just like it had been when they were talking with Copper.

"It's a snake by the way." Saphia offered up, "my family are snake Faunus, but because my dad is human things got kind of messed up. My mom has green scales on her arm and a forked snake tongue, my brother has the scales but no tongue. I have… well a green tongue and… this."

Saphia pulled away from Rhyme, which she was more than a little displeased about, and held out her left arm for the other two to see. Pulling back her sleeve Saphia showed them what appeared to be cracks running across her arm. It looked like she was being pulled apart and her arm would open up to nothingness at any moment.

"Not exactly scales but, they're something." Saphia sighed.

Iris whistled and leaned in to get a good look at the girl's arm. Rhyme frowned for just a second before her smile returned and she very gently lifted up Saphia's arm. Saphia's blush returned when Rhyme moved as she realized neither of them had ever let go of the others hand.

"May I?" Rhyme inquired hovering her hand over Saphia's arm while keeping her eyes locked with the other girl.

Saphia had never held eye contact for this long, it was terrifying but also felt pretty good. She finally tore her eyes away from Rhyme's though and took a look at her arm, it was just as horrifying as ever. She couldn't be proud of being a Faunus with such a stupid Faunus trait. She solemnly nodded submitting herself to the fact that she was just an interesting oddity for these two to ogle over.

Rhyme gently brushed her fingers over the scales on Saphia's arm and felt the rough bumps that made up this girl. Saphia let her eyes fall downcast but after a few moments of Rhyme feeling her arm she looked up. She saw the look on Rhyme's face, one of fascination and interest but even though she was still feeling Saphia's arm, the look was directed at the girl in blue's face. Saphia swallowed and picked herself up from the sink table finally releasing Rhyme's hand. Rhyme let her arms fall to her side and warm smile returned, focused entirely on the Saphia that was right in front of her.

"I'm glad you're feeling better." Iris called from the other side of the room as they were opening the door, "I'm gonna head back and talk with Copper some more so if you two want some privacy to make out or whatever, now's your chance."

Rhyme giggled and shot Iris a salute on their way out and then propped herself up against the wall and focused on Saphia once more. Rhyme loved seeing Saphia blush just by looking at her, the other girl was so shy about her feelings it was adorable.

"So, I don't really think you need to hide who you are, but I do have an idea if you want to get jerks like that guy to leave you alone if you're interested?" Rhyme asked her new friend.

Saphia nodded excitedly, "yes please I really can't deal with more shit like, even just once is way too much."

Rhyme nodded and thought to herself before continuing, "I'll spread a rumor for you and you can back it up if anyone asks about it. That jerk was after you because you're a Faunus and specifically one with an abnormal trait, which is disgusting your tongue is really pretty. Anyways, if we tell people that you're working as a test subject for the Schnee dust company that'll be your excuse. We can say they're working on a new way to inject dust straight into a person's body, and as part of the experiment you asked to get a green tongue."

Saphia tilted her hand confused, "Why would I want it? Wouldn't it make more sense to say that it was a side effect or something like that?"

"I suppose." Rhyme sighed, "but like I said, you're tongue is really pretty I think a lot of people would understand if they believed it was an aesthetic choice I'd certainly get it."

Saphia bit her fingernail for a few moments contemplating before responding, "ok, I'll go with that then if it makes sense to you." She examined her nail and thought to herself _"I don't know what's right, but if this girl keeps talking about my tongue being pretty, I'm going to lose my mind."_

Rhyme nodded smiling and finished her pitch, "great, I'll spread the rumor and make sure it's backed up by evidence." Rhyme sprang up and sauntered over to the door throwing Saphia a parting smile, "I'll have to leave you to get started on that now, but we'll see each other at Beacon ok, I believe in you!"

Rhyme blew Saphia a kiss before exiting through the door to follow her plan. Saphia had no idea what the plan was at all and spent a few moments thinking about that before sighing and exiting the room. She looked around just outside the door of the bathroom and noticed Iris arguing with a guy who had clearly been waiting to use the facilities. The girl in blue pulled her hood up and quickly ran back to her seat dragging her suitcase behind her.

When she got back though, the boy who had stepped on her was taking up the seat she had been using before. She growled under her breath at him and quickly walked past deciding a confrontation was not worthwhile. Glancing around Saphia saw Rhyme in a corner talking to the girl in white from earlier. The two seemed very relaxed and the girl in white even laughed at several things Rhyme said although Saphia couldn't quite make it out as the two were whispering to each other. Feeling a little heartbroken Saphia kept moving towards the front of the airship to find somewhere, anywhere to sit. To her dismay there wasn't a single open seat left, just standing area with students milling about. She tried to find somewhere quiet but got bumped around by other students who were freely roaming the ship not giving their surroundings a second glance.

Finally, Saphia managed to prop herself up on a rail near the very front of the ship and sigh in relief as she finally had somewhere out of the way to stay and hopefully not be bothered. Her wish to be left alone however was not to be fulfilled.

"Hey there, what's your name?" The girl standing next to Saphia called out to her with a huge grin covering even her eyes, "you on your way to Beacon, going to kick some ass as a huntress?"

Saphia looked at the girl but couldn't bring herself to speak, what if this new girl had similar feelings to the other boy? She couldn't let anyone else see her tongue, luckily her arm was all covered up by her sleeve.

The girl frowned a little and patted the back of a redhead standing next to her, "this is my sister Ruby, we're on our way to kick some monster ass ourselves, name's Yang by the way." She winked.

Saphia mumbled to them making sure her lips barely parted, "Hello, I'm Saphia... it's very nice to meet you." The shy girl kept her eyes focused on watching the sky in front of her begging for Beacon to show up soon so this trip would be over.

The girl, Ruby, seemed to be fairly shy herself based on her quiet tone, "hi, let's do our best as huntresses." She stuck out her hand towards Saphia it was stiff and almost shaking.

Seeing someone else as nervous as she was calmed Saphia a little bit and she smiled at Ruby shaking her hand. She desperately tried to think of a topic she could use without fully parting her lips, but she was at a complete loss for words. The two girls held the handshake for much longer than either of them intended before quickly pulling and keeping their hands at their sides.

The blonde girl, Yang, sighed and shrugged. "Well, I hope you have a good year not too… Grimm" She trailed off with the last word and looked at Saphia with an expectant face.

Ruby groaned but Saphia giggled a little bit focusing on the view while the sisters started talking about Beacon and what it would be like for them there. The rest of the trip went by with Saphia staying relatively silent aside from a slight giggle every time Yang told a bad pun.

It was a rocky trip and there were parts Saphia wished she could forget, but overall she was looking forward to starting school at Beacon and believed more than ever that she could be a great huntress.


	3. Chapter 2 Stumbling

Saphia bounced up and down slightly desperately waiting for the door of the airship to open. As soon as the hatch flew upwards, she took a deep breath and ran off the ship before the pilot could even finish saying "Welcome to Beacon" over the intercom. Rushing off to the side she threw herself on a bench and sighed ready to never board an airship ever again. She'd have to take one if she ever wanted to go back to Mistral, but it wasn't like there was any reason for her to be anywhere but her new home. Even more urgent than getting off the ship though was checking through her suitcase. There had been so many occasions of people bumping into the case or knocking it to the ground she was worried something might have fallen out or, based on that other boy's actions, been stolen.

Loud voices made the background noise to her rifling, "I could definitely beat a Nevermore, nothing to it!" That would be Iris.

"Ok, impressive." Copper humoring them again, "but what about a Beringel?" Or maybe he actually found them interesting, it was hard to tell.

Snorting laughter hits Saphia like spit to the face along with Iris' response, "is that even any stronger? I feel like a giant bird is way stronger than an ape!?"

"The ape is also giant though, and they've got like really huge muscles they must be incredibly strong!" Copper was beginning to sound a little indignant, maybe he was invested?

There was no response for a moment before Iris shot back with, "but muscles aren't everything, and how could a Beringel beat a Nevermore if it flew a hundred feet off the ground and threw rocks at it?"

"That's fair, but the point is you're supposed to beat the Beringel, they're not fighting each other." Copper was definitely enjoying himself at least, somehow.

Iris seemed appalled, "What!? Why not? That'd be so bad-ass, we should start Grimm cage matches where we just watch them fight each other and see who wins!"

"But wait?" Saphia had no idea whatsoever what Copper was thinking at this point, it didn't seem like he did either, "wouldn't that take away the Nevermore's advantage since it can't fly in a cage?"

Saphia glanced up at the two who had been discussing their theories right outside the airship, if they weren't talking about Grimm and fighting, they would have looked like ordinary students chatting. She watched as Iris overdramatically brought their hand up to their face to appear as if they were in deep thought while Copper began walking. Iris stood stock still for a moment thinking before following her new friend and starting a new topic on… did they just say chocolate Grimm?

Saphia sighed and used the peace to finally go through her bag and make sure everything was in order, it unfortunately wasn't. One of her books was missing as well as the little money she had stored in the side pocket, they were unfortunate losses, but she had a pretty good idea where they were. However, getting them back from the boy who had thrown her to the ground did not sound appealing in the slightest, at least her shield was still there. Leaning back against the bench and groaning Saphia thought over where she could get some money since she was now completely broke. There was a town nearby, it was certainly possible she could get a job there although she'd never had one before, what if she messed up or was asked to do something really awful. She'd read stories about waitresses being made to do lewd things with their customers or even managers and she didn't think she could handle that. Then again having to take care of customers all day would probably be even harder than that… there really might be no good option for the girl.

Rhyme seemed to be doing a lot better, she exited the ship so gracefully surrounded by other students asking her about dust or aura or what movies she liked. She probably didn't have any problems with money, and even if she did, she had so many friends to borrow from. Saphia bet there were already at least a dozen students at Beacon who would fall over themselves to do a favor for the girl in black she didn't stand a chance.

_"What am I thinking!?"_ Saphia's thoughts screamed, _"she'd never be into me anyway, she's so cool and sweet and pretty and beautiful and dazzling and…"_

Thoughts of Rhyme swirled through Saphia's brain taking over every corner including the par of her brain that stopped her from drooling. She jumped in her seat when she heard some boys nearby laughing and pointing at her and quickly wiped her lips clean, pulling her legs up and burying her head in her knees.

"_If Rhyme saw that I kill myself, if Rhyme saw that I kill myself, if Rhyme saw that I kill myself." _Saphia couldn't focus on a single thing except for those seven words, she didn't even notice when someone sat down next to her and poked her shoulder to grab her attention.

Saphia did notice the explosion though, it was hard to miss such a loud bang out of nowhere. Scanning the area around her quickly Saphia noticed Ruby Rose and the girl in white knocked to the ground and surrounded by a red mist. It seemed like the girl in white was yelling at Ruby.

"_Why would she do that? Isn't she friends with Rhyme, wouldn't all of Rhyme's friends be really nice and kind like her?"_ Saphia contemplated this still not realizing that the person was lightly shaking her shoulder and calling for her, _"I guess not, she's so great that even mean people must like her… I should remember to avoid that girl, I don't want to get yelled at."_

"Yo! You conscious green girl?" Saphia spun around finally noticing the person sitting next to her trying to reach her.

They were surprisingly short, Saphia hadn't expected to have to look down to see them but they couldn't have been much taller than 152 centimeters (five feet). Their skin was almost identical to Rhyme's and it blended surprisingly well with his dark blue hair and eyes. Her second surprise came from his build, even Ruby had a fair amount of muscle, but this person seemed to have next to none. He was toned certainly, but she couldn't imagine he could even pick up much of a weapon with those arms. Maybe he wasn't a student at Beacon at all, he was wearing a plain black and blue t-shirt and shorts and nothing that resembled combat gear at all. He didn't even have any luggage with him, there was no way he was here to enroll.

Saphia quickly scrambled examining her clothes, she couldn't remember wearing anything green, why would they call her that? She was stopped by their outstretched hand with the palm facing towards her as she watched them stick out their tongue and point to it. Great… he was naming her from her tongue, this meeting was off to a stellar start.

Saphia sighed and fell back against the bench, "It's Saphia, like blue not green." Her response was curt and swift, it surprised even her that she was able to speak so informally to someone she just met.

They just giggled as if she had made a joke, everyone around here was so odd, and stuck his hand out towards her again, "sorry about that, I just thought the tongue looked really cool, Royal they/them."

Right right, she always forgot to do that, especially after meeting Iris earlier she thought she would remember, "She/her sorry, I should get going."

She attempted to stand up and ignore the outstretched hand, but it was gently placed on her arm which made her wince. Turning around she found herself unable to leave, despite their appearance something about Royal made her dread what would happen if she ignored them.

Saphia desperately blurted out the first thing that came to mind to avoid upsetting Royal, "It's a Schnee thing! The Schnee dust company did some experiments on me and gave it to me!" Maybe lying to them wasn't the best way to assuage him but she was panicking having someone touching her.

They nodded solemnly and spoke slowly, "that makes sense, it certainly sounds like something the Schnee company could be involved in." Their words set off even more red alarms in Saphia's head, this person was dangerous she could just tell. "I'll ask our resident heiress what she thinks about it, I hear she's attending with us this year."

It took a moment but Saphia was able to slow herself down and shoot Royal a quizzical look, "heiress? Who is this? And, you're a student at Beacon!?"

They nodded robotically once more, "yes, I'm going to be your future classmate along with Weiss Schnee of the Schnee dust company, the ones who did your…" They gestured to their own tongue as an explanation.

"_What!"_ So much for slowing down, Saphia's head was reeling, _"there's no way that story will work if there's a Schnee attending this school, the second she hears about it she'll probably be furious! I'll be outed and be thrown out of Beacon, no forget that Ill be thrown in jail for lying about such a big company. I bet the Schnee's have a special dungeon just for people like me so they can torture us for stealing their name! Oh, I'm ruined goodbye Beacon and a life in the sunshine I'll never see another dawn after this gets to her."_

Royal watched the girl visibly shaking for a minute before getting up and patting her head, "it seems like you're focused on something else, so we'll do more proper greetings another time, have a good semester Saphia I'm off to find our friend the heiress." They strode off confidently as if they didn't have a care in the world, as if they weren't about to go ruin Saphia's life forever.

Saphia stood completely still unsure what to do, it was all over and there was nothing she could do about it. This wasn't just her dream; her entire life would be over now all because of a stupid lie. Royal must be ruining her on purpose, they had figured out she was a Faunus and was going to hurt her just like the boy on the airship. From what she had heard the Schnee company weren't very fond of Faunus, as soon as Weiss Schnee heard that a Faunus had stolen her companies name it was over.

The girl who would never be a Beacon student fiddled with her suitcase as tears welled in her eyes. She could barely move and instead focused on watching a blonde boy talking with Ruby, they looked like they were having fun too bad her chance to have friends like that was gone now. Maybe she should just leave, there wasn't much point in staying at Beacon anymore and if the Schnee company couldn't find her… no, they'd definitely find her no matter where she in Remnant she hid.

"Welcome to Beacon, can I help you find something." Someone was using their customer service voice right in front of Saphia.

Shaking her head Saphia looked up and found she had walked towards a person wearing what looked like a school uniform. The skirt was checkered, and this person was even wearing a tie, not getting to wear this uniform would be a tragedy unto itself. Since she was already resigned to her fate she may as well look around the school, this had been her dream so maybe she could get a few hours to walk around at least.

"Sh… She/her!" Saphia squeaked out, she was far too nervous to form a proper greeting.

The other girl just laughed and wiggled her bear ears, "me too, thank you." Her smile was devastatingly innocent.

"Um… can you point me in the direction of a classroom? I just want to see one before…" Saphia stammered out her last wish before she'd be thrown out.

The girl didn't seem to notice as her teeth shined brightly and that high voice returned, "sure thing, most of the classrooms are closed right now but I get wanting to see where you'll be learning for the next few years, if you look for room 132 down the right corridor and up a flight of stairs you should find professor Bayaga's room; she always keeps our club room open on the first day for students who want to join. You should join it for sure! I can lead you there if you want?" This girl was so excitable.

Glancing over her, Saphia's eyes widened when she saw a pair of small ears poking out of the top of her head, they looked like soft buttons, like a teddy bear. Her olive skin didn't match her green eyes very well, but there was so much kindness in them. She was openly revealing that she was a faunus and talking to random people she didn't even know while standing out in the open. Did this girl have no fear whatsoever, people like the guy on the ship would surely harm her if they saw her?

"Yes please, thank you what does she teach?" Saphia tried to keep her voice calm, perhaps this girl didn't know in that case she needed to get this faunus girl to safety quickly.

The faunus girl gestured for Saphia to follow and strode ahead with all the confidence of, well a human, "most of the teachers at Beacon teach general ins and outs of being hunters but professor Bayaga specializes in weapon creation and maintenance. That was probably covered plenty at your old school but trust me, she has a lot to teach even the expert craftsmen. You should make sure you sign up for some classes with her, highly recommended."

Saphia was hesitant to speak but felt rude without giving at least a mumbled response "So, you really like her?"

The girl's voiced raised another octave, "sure do, she's the best especially since she runs our club!"

Saphia glanced around nervously before half-heartedly asking, "what kind of club is this anyway? I've never been part of a club or had any classes on weapon creation."

Saphia really hoped this wouldn't anger the girl, but as soon as the words left her lips the faunus girl stopped on a dime and spun around to face her with a scowl on her face. She must have said something wrong, this girl was helping her, and she had messed it all up. She supposed it was probably best she'd be forced out of the academy soon, however this girl's wrath manifested it would be best to not be around for it.

The girl suddenly smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand and yelled out a response, "I forgot to introduce everything! I'm so sorry, I'm Etoile and I'm a Beacon academy alumnus. Professor Ozpin hired me and my team after we graduated to do odd jobs for the school, usually we're off on missions but I asked if I could help guide new students today! I was really excited to see a bunch of new faces at my home, I consider Beacon my home it's so great here, and guiding future hunters and huntresses just seemed like so much fun! I wanted to help as many of you as possible and… oh! Right, I forgot, the club Professor Bayaga runs a field study club. Basically, it's a club that's actually a study group with a teacher so everyone has more time to go over everything from their classes and learn more! Isn't that amazing!?"

"Uh… sure." Saphia offered fearfully, "so it's more time for studying… I think I'd be interested in that… I need more time since I didn't have a previous school to learn from."

"OH!" There she went with her overexcited speech again, "right you said you didn't know much about weapon creation. Well professor Bayaga is the best of the best when it comes to that stuff so you should definitely talk to her about receiving extra help. Oh, wait that's what the club is for so you can join and get your help, that's so awesome! Let's go, we need to hurry because this just became a billion times more important!"

Etoile spun around and ran off in the direction they were walking before. Saphia reeled from seeing the girl's quick changes but shook her head and followed as best she could. Running was far from her specialty, but part of her training with her brother had involved lots of cardio so she managed to keep decent pact only losing the other faunus for brief moments around corners. There were significantly more turns than Etoile had mentioned in her instructions which made Saphia very thankful the girl was guiding her herself. Things were getting very bright though, it was like she was running straight towards a spotlight and no matter how many turns she took it got brighter and brighter. Saphia had to squeeze her eyes shut as the light became too bright for her to bear and she desperately reached out to cling onto the back of Etoile's shirt.

Finally, the light went out and Etoile stopped with Saphia turning to see Saphia clinging to her shirt with one hand.

The bear girl just laughed and talked jovially, "sorry about that, the professor wanted to give me some kind of test to new students joining the club but talking to you was so much fun I forgot. We'll just keep that our little secret and consider that little chase you did as a good enough test, sound good?"

Etoile was beaming at Saphia and there wasn't a hint of treachery in her voice, this girl was a lot, but she sounded genuine at least.

"That… was really hard," Saphia panted, "What was with the light anyway?"

"Ah that's just my semblance no big deal it happens, I'll tell you about it later but for now!" Etoile shoved open the door next to them and her voice exploded into the room, "you should become the next member of our study group!"

A tired looking woman with white hair walked up to Etoile yawning. She looked to be in her late forties and was wearing a long gray robe. There were small scraps of metal armor covering the robe, Saphia couldn't imagine they would be at all useful for fighting but they looked cool. The woman rubbed her eyes and pat Etoile on the head, giving the bear faunus a warm smile.

"Good work but I told you to call it a club, children don't want to join a study group," the woman muttered, "you did ask this one, right? I'm not going to force someone who doesn't want to be here." She turned towards Saphia without waiting for a response, "Hello there young miss, I'm professor Bayaga, how much has Etoile here told you about me and this club, she tends to skip details?"

Telling this teacher she'd be kicked out soon would probably just get her expelled even sooner so Saphia kept her mouth shut and nervously glanced between the teacher and Etoile.

"I don't really know how weapons work, I didn't have an old school really, just what my brother taught me" Saphia's words spilled from her mouth, "but I want to learn things… since this is a school." She prayed that didn't sound rude, but she didn't know where to start.

The professor rubbed her chin and stared at Saphia clearly thinking deeply. The silence started to grow uncomfortable after a minute of dreadful waiting. Saphia was too worried about being rude to move and Etoile seemed to stay stock still as well, had she even blinked?

Mercifully Bayaga gave her response, "alright, you definitely sound like a student in need of some additional help, perfect candidate for our group. The first meeting is the day after tomorrow at five in the afternoon, make sure you finish up your test quickly and join us."

The professor spun around to walk towards a desk overflowing with papers leaving Saphia to be lead out of the room by Etoile.

"Nice, nice, she liked you so you're in congrats any other questions?" Etoile buzzed.

This girl was the complete opposite of a go-with-the-flow type, Saphia hadn't taken a step without this girl's guidance since they'd met. She'd wanted to ask the professor about her brother's shield and how to use it, but she had been pushed out so hastily plus the professor's gaze was so overpowering. Just knowing such an imposing figure had been staring at her had completely shut off Saphia's ability to speak, not that it took much to do so.

"Well, if that's it." Etoile pressed on not noticing or ignoring Saphia's discomfort, "off you go, you need to get to the auditorium for the opening ceremony. Let's go!"

The bear girl grabbed Saphia's hand and before she realized what was happening the girl in blue found herself in a courtyard. The courtyard appeared rather quant at first glance, full of grass and flowers with a small flow of water separating a miniature island. There were several statues around of noble looking individuals that Saphia had never seen before, with vicious looking weapons that were even more foreign. The big problem with the courtyard though was the dozens of people gathered that seemed to be staring right at her. Saphia's whole body twitched as she processed all this, why had Etoile led her here? Turning to look around she noticed a possible culprit, a fairly small statue of a lion near the doorway Etoile had led her through. Saphia assumed it was a lion at some point, it was hard to tell since more than half of it had crumbled away and was covering a person. Chunks of stone lay on top of spots of color connected to a familiar face. Iris stood up from the rubble brushing herself off and grinning like a madman.

Without a word Iris cracked her neck and shot Saphia a wave before bolting towards the crowd and colliding their fist with one of the masses. Saphia was shocked that Iris would just hurt somebody randomly like that, until she noticed that her target had been a returning blow thrown by Copper. Their fists slammed together in a loud bang as they both dug their heels in and pushed against the other.

"I guess Beacon never changes." Etoile observed next to the blue girl, "there's always at least two newbies fighting at the beginning of the year, naïve freshmen who haven't met Goodwitch yet." Today had been full of surprises for Saphia and the grin on Etoile's face was no exception, "those two are really into it too, this looks like it's gonna be awesome! We should stay and watch!"

Saphia's perspective was most certainly not awesome, they could hurt each other or break something. All she could do was gape in shock as the two clashed again and again trading blows and occasionally being thrown backwards. They were insanely strong, stronger than anything Saphia could do, was this the level the school was expecting of her? How had she possibly gotten in alongside these monsters?

The only solace Saphia had was the quick flash of light she noticed every time a solid punch connected. Their auras were protecting them for now. Based on what she knew about the two the fight was most likely their idea of fun, she vaguely remembered them talking about fighting earlier. It would be ok then, this wasn't a serious fight and they definitely wouldn't be getting hurt. That was Saphia's hope until a firm uppercut from Copper sent Iris sprawling, they spat out blood before getting up. Actual real blood, they were hurt for real but they were still fighting and had that imbecilic grin on their face!

"Children that's enough!" A woman's voice shouted.

Finally, someone to stop this, a teacher or authority of some kind. Maybe this was the Goodwitch Etoil had mentioned? Professor Goodwitch maybe, of if that were the case Saphia would thank her a thousand times over for putting a stop to the literal bloodshed. Copper seemed much less pleased groaning and looking around trying to identify the source of the sound. The rest of the crowd had very similar reactions, apparently desiring more intense combat but their groans changed to cheers when Iris appeared in front of Copper and kicked him squarely in the stomach.

"Ha! I gotcha nerd!" The woman's voice appeared again, but Iris hadn't moved her lips at all. Saphia realized the voice was coming from all around them, "you don't stand a chance against the great Iris Vari!"

The kick, which had to have been aura packed, sent Copper flying backwards on a collision course with a statue of a man in a suit with both hands on a cane with some kind of clock design. Saphia braced herself, waiting for his impact but slowly relaxed when she realized it wasn't coming. Copper was hovering a foot off the ground and a few inches away from the statue, his momentum had been stopped completely. A new woman's voice cleared her throat, but this time there was a definite source as a blonde in a purple cape walked towards Iris holding out what looked like a stick. The woman glared at Iris for a moment and then they found themselves hovering off the ground in a similar manner to Copper.

"Students!" The woman's voice was commanding and unrelenting, "the ceremony is beginning in three minutes, report to the auditorium or you will all be expelled."

One by one audience members started shuffling away as they realized the entertainment was done and it was time for schooling to begin. Iris' face strained but they seemed to be unable to move freely, Copper was levitated over to them with a look of shame covering his face. The woman walked away in the direction of the wave of students with the two hooligans floating behind her.

Etoile cackled and grabbed Saphia's hand, "That's Goodwitch, Glynda Goodwitch and that is pretty much how the fights end every single year. Come on, let's get moving."

Etoile began a brisk pace alongside the crowd while Saphia stumbled to keep up.

Barely able to keep her feet beneath her, Saphia's words were fumbled as well, "Will they be ok? They're not bad people just a… well a lot of things."

Etoile waved the blue girl's comment away and scoffed, "don't worry they're going in the direction of the headmaster, that dude is so forgiving he'd never expel someone on the first day. If they were headed towards Goodwitch's office though, they'd be super fucked."

Saphia let out a sigh of relief, she wasn't sure why Iris hadn't been that nice to her and Copper had only exchanged a few words. Things were off to an intense start and Saphia desperately prayed that they would quite down a little. School was starting up and based on what she's read she couldn't imagine things being that active. Even for a school for hunters there was no way a classroom and lectures could be that difficult to handle. Oh well, she wouldn't be here long enough to figure out anyway time to say goodbye to this dream and hello to expulsion.


End file.
